When looking upon Season 22 of Diablo 3, there was a good chunk of me that wanted to skip it. Right now there just seems to be way too much going on and not nearly enough time to do any of it. However as I got closer to the seasonal start, the more I decided I would ultimately miss the tradition if I had kicked it to the curb even for one season. When I found out that my friend Grace was planning on doing the season regardless it changed my tune a bit and once again we were spending Friday night starting brand new characters and beginning yet another seasons journey. Thankfully we had quite possibly the easiest challenge rift ever to get some initial goodies to begin the process.
Admittedly one of the things that made me a little hesitant was the fact that Haedrig’s Gift this time around was a selection of the newest sets. I had not tried Gears of Destruction for example on Hunters and was not sure how I would like this up close and personal strife/fan of knives build. The end result however is complete nonsense as this is essentially the “Spin to Win” Demon Hunter that plays much like a “Whirlrend” Barbarian. Like so many builds it takes a few seconds to prime the pump but once you are up and running it is pretty easy to maintain a rapid whirlwind of death as you clear the map. For the most part my current build is patterned off of this guide on Icy Veins, though it took a lot of changes along the way as I spent the majority of my time leveling with a grenades heavy build.
Friday night we managed to grind up past 50 before sleep claimed us, and then Saturday morning we wrapped things up pretty quickly and before I knew it all I was missing for my seasonal journey was the solo 20. After getting those first four steps however I of course enlisted in the later goals. Currently slayer is hanging by a thread with only a set dungeon in my way. Set dungeons are the bane of my existence because I hate being asked to perform on a timer. Sadly the Gears of Destruction set does not have a dungeon, which means I am having to farm the components for other builds. Most of the hunter set dungeons are somewhat fiddly and since I am going to need multiple classes to finish the conquests I might push up something a little easier.
The conquests are ultimately going to be the problem this season. The easy one of course is grind up 3 gems to level 65, and since I can relatively easily run higher tier greater rifts I should be able to knock that one out without much issue. Here is a list of what is available for Season 22:
- Boss Mode – Kill all of the bosses in Diablo 3 on Torment X within 20 minutes
- Sprinter – Complete the entire campaign from Act I to Act V at Level 70 in under 1 hour
- On a Good Day – Level 3 Gems to 65
- Years of War – Clear Greater Rift 55 solo with the full bonuses of Six Class Sets
- Masters of the Universe – Master 8 Set Dungeons
Boss Mode and Sprinter are things I need to do some research into. The speed of this build is insane given that you move super fast while you are fully buffed up. This might be reasonable but given that I don’t have the best pathing memorized due to NEVER playing the campaign mode of the game… I am not sure how viable that option is. Years of War seems pretty reasonable since you can build out MOST gear sets in a way to be able to clear 55 solo. I hate set dungeons… so I absolutely do not want to do that one if I can at all have any other options.
I’ve reached a point where I can fairly reliably clear Torment XVI, and have MOST of this gear set in the bag. I am contemplating running up a Barbarian for my second seasonal character since there are a lot of really powerful builds there that could make clearing those six grifts a bit easier. Boss Mode is the one that intrigues me the most, and I am wondering if a party of 4 could divide and conquer and take them all out at the same time. That is the part that I need to research to see if that counts. If so then it might be doable pending I find two more speed builds to go along with Grace and I. The other question is… how much I actually care given that tonight Shadowlands opens and I trying to decide how much that pet matters to me.